FAO acknowledges 3 new agricultural heritage sites in China

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recognized three sites in China as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) on Saturday.

The three sites are Kuancheng Manchu Autonomous County in north China's Hebei Province with a traditional chestnut eco-planting system, Tongling City in east China's Anhui Province with an ancient Chinese waxberry composite system and Xianju County in east China's Zhejiang Province with a white ginger plantation system.

To date, 22 sites in China have been added to the list of GIAHS. The FAO has designated over 86 sites around the world, with China being the largest single contributor to the list.

The Kuancheng Traditional Chestnut Eco-Planting System 

Known as the "hometown of the chestnut in China" and the "dominant area of characteristic agricultural products," Kuancheng is one of the first and most important areas in China to cultivate chestnuts. As far back as the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 CE), chestnuts became the most important economic fruit tree that was cultivated in Kuancheng, and a traditional chestnut cultivation system with chestnut cultivation as the core and the rational distributions of such resources as crops, medicinal materials, and poultry industries was gradually established.

It forms an important part of the global chestnut variety resource bank and it is rich in cultural content, respecting nature and based on a form of social organization that promotes agricultural production.

The Tongling White Ginger Plantation System 

Tongling people have long cultivated an indigenous species: white ginger. Based on the difference in characteristics and growing environments between ginger and rice, locals have developed an ecological planting pattern for white ginger, improving the utilization of water and land resources and optimizing the efficiency of plant disease control.

Tongling has developed key techniques for ginger plantation including ginger pavilions for seed-preserving and germination-accelerating. Also, it has fostered characteristic ginger cultures, such as ginger planting, ginger food, ginger gifts and belief in Ginger God.

The Xianju Ancient Chinese Waxberry Composite System

Known as one of the original areas of waxberry cultivation, Xianju has a history of waxberry cultivation dating back more than 1,600 years. 

The composite planting and breeding mode of "waxberries-tea-chickens-bees" is a creation based on Xianju villagers' thousands of years of experience. The site has accumulated a large number of ancient waxberry germplasm resources with diverse types and rich varieties.